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War and Rock Video Games Win Awards

LAS VEGAS, Feb. 10 - God of War, a classic big-budget action game, shared the spotlight with Guitar Hero, the quirky, infectious rock 'n' roll dream maker, on Thursday night as the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences announced the winners of its 2005 video game awards.

While the annual Interactive Achievement Awards, now in their ninth year, lack a snappy nickname like the Grammys in music or the Oscars in film, they persist as the most prestigious prizes in the fast-growing video game industry. The comedian and actor Jay Mohr presented the awards Thursday at an R-rated ceremony and party at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.

While Nintendogs, made for Nintendo's DS handheld game machine, won two awards, it was God of War and Guitar Hero that emerged as the big winners. God of War, made by Sony at its Santa Monica, Calif., studio for the PlayStation 2 game console, won seven awards, including the top prize for Game of the Year, while Guitar Hero won in five categories including the coveted Outstanding Innovation in Gaming award.

Sony is one of the large, dominant companies in the video game industry, but Guitar Hero was made by Harmonix, a relatively obscure developer, and published by Red Octane, a small publisher akin to an indie film house. God of War is an action-oriented game that follows the journey of a fallen hero through iconic scenes of Greek mythology, while Guitar Hero is a karaoke-like game that allows players to recreate their arena-rock fantasies.

"I'm totally blown away and stunned that we've been able to share the stage with big-name games like God of War," Alex Rigopulos, Harmonix's chief executive, said in a brief interview during the ceremony. "We thought that maybe a few people would like Guitar Hero, but we had no idea that we would get a response like this."

Other game awards are determined by fans and the media, but the Interactive Achievement Awards are based on a vote by game-industry executives. The awards are presented during the academy's annual DICE conference, which stands for the exhortation to design, innovate, communicate and entertain.

In addition to God of War, Guitar Hero and Nintendogs, which was anointed the Handheld Game of the Year, the other big winner was Shadow of the Colossus, made by Sony in Japan. The spiritual successor to the cult hit ICO, Shadow of the Colossus won awards for art direction and visual engineering. Activision's Call of Duty franchise, based on World War II, and Battlefield 2, the modern combat game from Electronic Arts, also won prominent prizes. While Microsoft brought out its next-generation game console, the Xbox 360, in November, 360 games were essentially shut out of the awards. One of the most successful games of 2005, World of Warcraft, was also left out because it was technically introduced in late 2004.